A brief view back

Wednesday April 29th, 2020

Here we go!

When a person is about to take a new, completely overwhelming step into uncertainty, a brief look back is therapeutically valuable. That day is today.

We have now sold our beautiful house and literally left the solid ground under our feet. When we bought the house of the incredibly talented and now famous architect Sharam Agaajani 12 years ago, we were still sailing in the Baltic Sea with a 40ft Hanse Mono. That was big for us. I would so much like to know what I would have thought 12 years ago if someone had told us about our current plan. Many conjunctions, but still exciting. And it was our beginning of this today’s passion that changed our life completely. At that time we had an office in Berlin and the way to “Hohe Düne”and “Warnmünde” was short. The Baltic Sea seemed immense to us and even the 40 feet of the boat seemed to be a huge vessel. And frankly, with our knowledge of today, we had no idea about sailing.

What we have grown since then. Back then, when we once approached the Danish “Gedser” at 7 Bft and Ka managed her first difficult docking, we felt like heroes. The day after, we hit a sandbank and we were fools again. However, it was wonderful. We had many nice days on the water, even if we hadn’t always a clue about what we were doing.

2 vessels later

Today, 2 vessels and over 10.000 nm later, the view back makes me smile romantically. Not that we do not make any more mistakes today. You shouldn’t think how creative you can be when you “play dumb” and we hardly miss an opportunity. But the world is getting bigger. The reward after an exhausting trip is a painkiller instead of a plaice, a jump into the tropical sea instead of a hot shower. But just like the delicious plaice in Denmark, you will never forget the very first overnight sail, even if you have countless others on the World’s great oceans behind you.

The next few years we will only have wavering ground under our feet. The ship is much bigger and it is funny to compare the World with the Baltic Sea. The view back is nevertheless a pleasure and it shows the personal development. That is a different development than at work. It’s nice when you have more success, earn more and make a career. The vacation goes to Bali instead of the Balearic Islands, the Peugeot becomes a Porsche. But somehow everything remains similar and rather insignificant. When you sail through the World with your own vessel, every development is more existential. The safety net is gone, the solid ground too. Difficulties can become a physical threat. Any blue-water sailor will be able to tell you about that. No one will ever come back the way they sailed off.

There’s a saying by boat owners about the two best days of an owner’s life. The day a boat is bought and the day it is sold. It’s the same with our house. They were two perfect decisions in our lives. But now the time has come for us to start a different life. This includes every single experience of our previous life that led us to this day. We approach the new path with great humility and know that we often have to go beyond our limits. Just like every long distance sailor. But we will master it. And we will continue to grow.

Current update

As of today we have the news that our shipyard Robinson & Caine will continue to work at the beginning of May. This is great news, because with this we could stick to our plan. Then we just have to get to Cape Town somehow, but we still have 60 days to go.

4 thoughts

Jenny Cropper

Aha, good to hear about your beautiful house transfer – happy/sad feelings? But overall you must be excited about the future. Glad to hear that the shipyard is resuming work. x (P.S Hope that you also made a plan about your cellar….. 😉 )

Holger Binz

Hi Jenny, its amazing that the wine cellar meets a huge interest 🙂 However we are working hard to reduce the stock but lovely friends will take the remaining part. So yes, lets cross fingers to make it all happen. I had to change flights today but its still in the timeframe. Take care you both. Hugs and kisses

Hi both,
Lovely to hear from you in this strange world. We are all ok so far.
Glad to hear the shipyard will soon continue. SA seem to have done much better with Covid than most.
Sail away quick, a glorious isolation awaits.
Hi Jenny, as well. Hope you and Pete are OK.